The mystery is over

Srijit Mukherjee unveiled his new film this month. Finished with the controversial script (Read my earlier post Storm over the mystery pages), he let out that this is a ‘Serial killer-cop drama’ where a group of special branch police officers are investigating a series of murders in the city.

Crime thriller is a less-explored genre in contemporary Bangla cinema. Hence Srijit is spot on in picking the subject of his second venture, curiously named 22shey Srabon, after his immensely successful debut with Autograph. Enriching the film that will show the dark side of Kolkata will be the ensemble cast. Prosenjit will be playing Prabir Guha Neogi (the protagonist), a senior police officer, with a mix of attitude, sense of humour and body language that will make him different from familiar cop characters in Bangla movies (Rahul Bose also played an intelligent senior police officer in Antaheen, but he wasn’t shown much in work). Working with him will be Abhijit Pakrashi, an intelligent, bright, young officer coming from small town Bengal, played by Parambrata Chattopadhyay, and Rajesh Sharma as another interesting cop. Raima Sen and Abir Chatterjee play two characters who happen to be childhood friends, working in a television channel. Raima Sen and Abir Chatterjee will be shown as childhood friends who work in a television channel. Raima plays Amrita- a spirited and tough journalist. Parambrata is her love interest (they will be seen in a relationship again after The Bong Connection in 2007). And Srijit has done no short of a casting coup in bringing back Goutam Ghose before the camera to portray an eccentric poet from the sixties. I still recall his tough nut investigative journalist act long back in Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Grihajuddha (1982). He last acted in a cameo in a French film called The Wall (1983), so it’s a gap of 28 years before he’s going to face the camera again! Anupam 'Autograph' Roy will be scoring the film which will have five songs, including two romantic songs, and two intense ones “heavily influenced by classical music” as he put it.

A little peek into Prabir Guha Neogi - He lives in an old mansion in north Kolkata, and has a rich, old-fashioned taste. The pride that Srijit has showed in this character was once immortalized by Chhobi Biswas in many films, including Jalsaghar. He is clued into modern technology but prefers gramophone to CD player for listening to his favourite music. Termed ‘mad’ by his department and suspended, he is recalled to solve the murder case. He is arrogant and treats his juniors like slaves, but eventually bonds with them as a father figure as the story progresses. A very, very unconventional and intriguing protagonist, isn’t he?

Am keen to come back on 22shey Srabon, produced by Shree Venkatesh Films. Watch this blog.